Ousmane Dembélé congratulated by King Messi in person, after his late and decisive goal against Valladolid on Monday. – Bagu Blanco / Pressinphoto / Shutterstock / SIPA
A suspense worthy of our good old Ligue 1. Five days before the clasico on the lawn of Real Madrid, Ousmane Dembélé offered the victory Monday to Barça thanks to a goal at the last minute against the 16th of Liga, Valladolid. At the end of this 29th day, Barcelona come back one point behind the leader, Atlético Madrid, and are two steps ahead of Real.
The French world champion delivered the Catalans by taking from the left a center of Frenkie de Jong diverted by Ronald Araujo. Ten minutes earlier, he had caused a fault which had earned Oscar Plano a direct red card (79th) for a dangerous tackle from behind. Finally spared from injuries, “Dembouz” is now ten goals scored this season (five in La Liga, three in C1 and two in the Copa del Rey), and four assists.
Congratulations from Koeman
“His trajectory this season is excellent: he has progressed a lot physically, that was the key to his consistency, to be able to do a lot of games like that. If it was up to me, yes sure I would like him to stay with us [après la fin de son contrat en 2022] Ronald Koeman said at a post-match press conference.
The Dutch coach of Barça, however, admitted to having seen a Barça “a little slow, tired, who did not have control of the match”. And who could have cracked in the 9th minute, on a header from Kenan Kodro who hit the crossbar of Marc-André ter Stegen (9th). Fortunately, Dembélé was there.